Bynum plays occasionally by reducing Sharpe's minutes, and having Afflalo play some small forward with the other guards playing Afflalo's shooting guard minutes.

Dyess plays about 12 minutes a game, taking about 2 minutes away from each of Kwame, Sheed, Amir, JMAX, Sharpe, and Tay. (Occasionally, Dyess comes in with Sheed or Kwame, while Amir moves to small forward.)

This all can be done with a fairly simple substitution pattern. Just play the starters all the 1st and 3rd quarters, and the end of the game. The subs play the whole 2nd quarter, and the beginning of the 4th quarter.

With the economy struggling like it is, the Pistons should try to make use of their lower-priced commodities. That is, the guys with the smallest salaries should be playing the most minutes and vice versa.

Here's what we got:

Starting Unit
PG - Stuckey
SG - Sharpe
SF - JMax
PF - Amir
C - Kwame

This gives us a big, strong defensive-minded unit to begin the game. Plus, this unit will only cost the Pistons $11.7 million.

2nd Unit
PG - AI
SG - Rip
SF - Tay
PF - Sheed
C - Dyess

These reserves will begin replacing starters mid-way through the 2nd quarter. These guys will not play a lot of minutes: (1) Because they will need rest for the playoffs, and (2) This group has a total salary of $61.7 million.

Doesn't seem cost effective to have such an expensive player coming off the bench though.

I would recommend using AI as a situational sub for certain match-ups only. If we are playing another team with a 150lb PG less than 6' tall, put AI in just to see if he can slow the guy down a little.

Otherwise, we can rest AI for the critical NBA Finals game 7 winning shot. It will be well defended, so we need somebody who can create their own.

With the economy struggling like it is, the Pistons should try to make use of their lower-priced commodities. That is, the guys with the smallest salaries should be playing the most minutes and vice versa.

Here's what we got:

Starting Unit
PG - Stuckey
SG - Sharpe
SF - JMax
PF - Amir
C - Kwame

This gives us a big, strong defensive-minded unit to begin the game. Plus, this unit will only cost the Pistons $11.7 million.

2nd Unit
PG - AI
SG - Rip
SF - Tay
PF - Sheed
C - Dyess

These reserves will begin replacing starters mid-way through the 2nd quarter. These guys will not play a lot of minutes: (1) Because they will need rest for the playoffs, and (2) This group has a total salary of $61.7 million.

The big-money guys will play down the stretch during crunch time. They should now be well-rested so they will be in better position to make the big-time plays that they are getting paid for.

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Good try, but this still leaves Dyess and Sheed in together too long. Maybe if you just kept the two to like 8 minutes a game total, like to start the 2nd and 4th quarters, you would have something. Keep working on it.

Good try, but this still leaves Dyess and Sheed in together too long. Maybe if you just kept the two to like 8 minutes a game total, like to start the 2nd and 4th quarters, you would have something. Keep working on it.

Click to expand...

Good points. I was struggling when assigning McDyess' minutes. We re-signed him for less than $1 million, but the Nuggets bought him out for about $6 million of the more than $13 million remaining on his contract. He was cheap for us, but expensive for the NBA. Such a dilemma I was faced with it. He really screwed up my spreadsheet, to be honest.

Unconventional big ball off the bench. AI can spend 50% of the time looking for his own shot, and 50% of the time driving and dishing/ kicking. Max, Amir, and Kwame will concentrate on avoiding 3-second calls while getting 75% of the offensive rebound opportunities. If the other team starts cracking it, then sub Tay in for one of the bigs.

Think of the offensive rebounding opportunities for 3 aggressive bigs against the other teams' bench units. Think of the running opportunities. Plus we'd have 2 players who would love to get some post touches in case AI needs to take a play off.

With all 5 defenders shadowing AI, the alley oop would always be a threat. He'd shoot a lot of heavily contested shots, but even if he shot .375 under this scheme, it would work out well because we'd be getting a huge portion of his misses back for a 2nd and 3rd chance.

Unconventional big ball off the bench. AI can spend 50% of the time looking for his own shot, and 50% of the time driving and dishing/ kicking. Max, Amir, and Kwame will concentrate on avoiding 3-second calls while getting 75% of the offensive rebound opportunities. If the other team starts cracking it, then sub Tay in for one of the bigs.

Click to expand...

Why can't AI replace Stuck and do that with the starters? What you're asking him to do is what several other PGs do. Set up Tay along the perimeter to shoot 3s, feed Sheed in the post, run the pick & roll with Sheed/Dyess, get Rip some touches...

Wouldn't the defense pack it in and dare that second unit to score from the perimeter? Plus the paint would already be pretty congested with 3 guys waiting for offensive boards.

I'm trying to specifically find a way to compensate for AI's low FG% and yet utilize his ability to score in difficult situations.

So, my logic is that I want AI out there playing 1 on 5 with 4 rabid dogs on the offensive boards and on the defensive end. Even though he'll be shooting most of the shots at less than 40%, we'll still score on 60% of our possessions with all the mulligans he'll get.

It will never happen though, so don't worry too much about it. This thread it all about daydreaming.